Has anyone quit with no other job lined up?

[ReacherOMGyes]

Work is killing me and I'm ready to just give my resignation and then look for work, though I am actively looking now and have applied for a new job.

I'm a civil servant in an admin role and our team has gone from 8 to 4 people in the last month, one of the 4 is part time, one is still training and one is my line manager. Oh and we're also spread accross 2 sites. Upper management just can't seem to grasp the sheer amount of work that is now on the plates of the remaining people and instead of helping they just keep sending email asking why things aren't done, or asking if X can be done too. They're awful. I sent an email to two managers on Friday having a bit of a rant, today they've asked if I could do yet another task. I dispair!!

I'm off until next week now on planned AL but I've just come home and cried, I'd be happy to never go back in. I love my team, my LM is great and under the same pressures, he's also ready to quit so I'd feel guilty leaving them, but at some point I have to consider my own MH. I'm not a dramatic person but I've never felt like this in a job before

So to my question, do I quit now with no job lined up or stick it until I find something. I've got probably 3 months I could do with no income at a push. Will it look bad on my CV and hurt my future prospects?

I did a few years ago. My DH still had his job but I couldn’t afford to be out of work for long. It was getting to me so bad and I couldn’t get time off for interviews so I resigned one day. Worked my month notice then found a temp job (credit control). I them got a permanent role and the temporary role offered me a job too. I took the new one and have been there 6 and a half years and moved into a new role at the company and am also doing my accounting qualification.

Could you go off on the sick for a few weeks? If your MH is being affected would that effect your ability to perform to your best standard at interviews? If you were signed off for a few weeks could you return to the office on a phased return? That way you might buy yourself more time to find your next job and not worry about the finances.

This, just jump down from the hill and we can all move on.

It's also impossible to advise when we don't understand the job market in this mythical place. If you can get another job really quickly because there's loads about, then sure, what's stopping you?

Only a 1 bed flat unfortunately, though I could rent the whole thing and move in with my mum. Though this would probably lead to stress of a different kind 😬

I've put 3 months out there cos thats what I think I could just about do, I'd definitely rather not though. There's jobs going everywhere, I'm sure I could get something at least NMW for a time

Please go away if you've nothing constructive to add, you're just being nasty now for the smugness of being right

You know you don't HAVE to advise if its that 'impossible' for you

I've asked kindly and respectfully, I don't want to give my location

Yes, when I was in a toxic job. No regrets either. I discussed with my husband first, made a plan and went.

If you’re single - make a plan, get some savings sacked away, look for a new job while you’re at it.

life is too short.

I didn't ask for your location, and I did give advice.

Baffling.

You also said it was impossible to advise me, yet here you are

Baffling

I have been in that position and I did hand in my notice with no job to go too. I am NHS though and I knew I could work bank shifts to bring money in.

Fate also intervened and I found the perfect job and applied within a few days of handing in my notice which I have now been doing for the past 8 months. My old job, whilst horrific did enabled me to network and definitely helped me getting my new job.

i would have gone anyway, I was a complete mess and as close to a complete breakdown as I have ever been! The minute I decided to hand in my notice, I felt a weight lifting and I felt I could breathe again.

I did have DH and his pension income plus savings to fall back on so I was fortunate. I guess it depends on how easy it will be to find another position and what your contingency is if you struggle.

i wish you all the best, it is awful to feel trapped in a toxic work place. I also loved my team but the best thing I ever did was leave and I have a new lease of life, I have lost 2.5 stone in weight, joined a gym and got so much stronger, I feel alive after 2.5 years of absolute hell.

Thanks for sharing. The hardest part is thinking maybe it's not so bad and it's just me being daft, but the stress is real and the way I felt when I left today I nearly wrote my resignation then.

Long term I need a job with similar wages to this one, I can't sustain myself on NMW for too long. If I can secure something else of course

I may start asking other departments if anything is coming up, we deal with a lot of other Govt and even NHS departments too. Networking might be a way to go for me

Quit. It won’t look bad, gap for personal reasons. It would help if your line manager will agree to be a referee and will support you for your next job.

I would definitely start putting the feelers out and doing as much as you can to find another position. Even the process of actively looking for another job could help you feel more in control and forward focused.

I spent 2.5 years telling myself my job wasn’t that bad and it was only really after I left that I realized how much of myself I had lost along the way. I really had become a shadow of myself.

I took a pay cut on paper in changing my job dropping an NHS band but in reality I earn more because I now work shifts which suits me better and I no longer have any management responsibilities so I really was very lucky.

Hope everything works out for you💐

I quit my job after eighteen months, with no job to go to. I’d been miserable for most of those 18 months and finally reached my limit.

I had a few interviews while I was in my notice period but was unsuccessful and was out of work for 2 months before I found a new job. Unfortunately that one wasn’t right either and I started to feel that my days of being happy at work were over 😞

I was very lucky to be headhunted for a new position 4 months into bad job no.2. I’ve been in my new job for 7 months now and I love it, it’s genuinely the happiest I’ve been at work in years. I often think back to that awful period just before I quit the first bad job, when I was crying every day and Sunday night blues started on Sunday morning.

I can’t believe I actually resigned, and I can’t believe how different I feel now. I have no regrets - life is too short to spend most of your waking hours doing something that makes you miserable.

I would make a list of my tasks on a spreadsheet and get my manager to prioritise them. You only have so many hours in a day…

I have. I worked in an insurance job that I absolutely hated. The boss was a bully. I turned 30, lived alone, had my own house and bills etc. I sat in work and thought I cannot spend my life doing this. I quit and walked out.

Absolutely panicked the next day. I got a new job two weeks later as a marketing executive for a fashion company. I absolutely love it and its changed my life.

if it was me I would take some time out and get signed off, focus on your mental health for a week or so and then take time to really think is this role for you? if its not then start looking for other roles while you are off xx

Yes I quit. Had many people telling me not to quit but I hated my job and had savings to help me. It didn’t take too long to get another job lined up plus multiple job offers. Even if I couldn’t get a job straight away in my field I would have just applied for any job and worked in that one until the one I wanted came up. The feeling of quitting was amazing. Don’t regret it at all.

I left my job with no job to go to last year. I was being bullied out anyway so could either fight it for a few months longer or leave so I left. I knew I’d find Supply work easily (I was a teacher) and started working within a few weeks. I’ve since found a totally different job that I love. I wouldn’t have been able to find the job while I was miserable and exhausted every day, like I was at my last job. Take a few weeks to yourself since you can afford to. If you are really worried, start applying as you hand in your notice so you could have something lined up in weeks.

Are go on the sick for you MH? Some people will hate that I’ve suggested that but you need to look after yourself. Plus if you go on the sick you can look for a job in between. You need to look after number 1 op.

The job market is absolutely dire at the moment. I resigned without a job to go to last year, as I had a 6 month period. It’s taken me all of that time to secure a new similar paying role, and even that is 1 year FTC. If you can, hang on in your employment and “quietly quit”. Don’t stress about your current role, just do what you can in your working hours then saunter out at the end of the day.

Ever heard of of Channel Islands and Isle of Man?

Absolutely. And neither are part of GB (or the UK) so they cannot be relevant to the OP’s comment that she lives in GB but not the UK.

I have not rtft, but I think other pp’s have also mentioned similar to this: I have had a number of stressful jobs over the years, if it were me I would write an email listing all of the tasks / parts of the workload, and give your LM (or your LM’s LM) the choice of what they want you to prioritise. You could put some thought into what you think they would want you to prioritise, and make some suggestions, being really clear about if they want you to focus on A, B then C, then that will take X amount of time, and you will then not be able to address D, E, F, G etc. And if you get them to agree what they want you to focus on (and authorise what you can leave), then if other colleagues start badgering you, you can forward your LM’s response (telling you what to prioritise and what to leave), copying in your LM, and telling the badgering colleague to take it up with your LM. I have always worked autonomously, but on occasion did find it really helpful to engage a supportive LM to back me up against a difficult colleague.

Sorry it is not advice about quitting your job, as requested… I suppose my view on that is try not to be hasty (re: quitting) because if you can sort things out then you get to stay in a job / sector that you know and potentially like. I quit a job / sector many years ago - and I did come to regret not having the confidence to try and change what I could about the situation before giving it up..

Yes. I did.

I’ve done it twice but luckily I had 3 month notice period and I managed to get work straight away. We could have downsized if necessary. Take as much annual leave and sick pay as you sound so stressed. I was too I didn’t have the mental energy to update my cv and job hunt. Get cv and linked in up to date and sign on with agencies. If you can last. Bit longer till you get a job that woukd be the best option.
if you can get cleaning caring or any shop pub work that would be some money to tide you over. Those industries always advertising in my area.
it’s a big step and worrying but I came out ok. I had been in my job 15 years. Save as much as you can and don’t sign up to any holiday nights out.
if yiy that stressed it’s honestly not worth it a job will turn up. Good luck x